The UK is waiting for new competition legislation to possibly relaunch their investigations into Apple and Google’s app stores for restricting consumer choice.
The UK closed its long-standing investigations into Apple and Google’s “mobile app ecosystems,” without any action.
In 2021, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched an investigation into the terms and conditions of Apple’s app store on its iOS and iPad devices.
A year later, they launched an inquiry into Google’s distribution of apps on its Android devices and Play Store rules.
In both cases, the CMA said it was worried the terms and conditions limited choices for developers leading to “higher prices and reduced choice” for users.
But the closure is just for now since how apps are distributed “remains an area of strategic significance,” to the CMA.
In a statement, the CMA said it’s waiting for new competition powers coming into force in the UK that they will apply to “resolve app store concerns”.
The UK government’s reasoning behind the new act was that “the existing competition framework was not set up to address effectively certain features of fast-moving digital markets that can lead to a small number of firms establishing entrenched and substantial market power,” a statement from the CMA reads.
The UK started updating their digital market regulations as far back as 2020 but was hit with delays due to the quick succession of prime ministers in the House of Commons.
The law passed in May just ahead of the UK’s latest election and will give the CMA the power to set specific requirements for how companies behave with a strategic advantage in an online market or sector.
“Once the new (…) regime comes into force, we’ll be able to consider applying those new powers to concerns we have already identified in our work,” Will Hayter, CMA’s executive director for digital markets, said in a statement.
“It’s critical that tech businesses in the UK, including app developers, can have access to a fair and competitive app ecosystem,” he added.
By stopping the investigation, the CMA also rejected some changes proposed by Google to their billing system. The CMA said that the proposal from Google did not satisfy their concerns.
